August 24, 2011

Australian politics are so much more interesting than our boring old Canadian version:

A political scandal involving alleged payments to prostitutes by an MP, which threatens Australia’s minority government, deepened on Wednesday when the politician’s former union asked police to investigate his union credit card bills.

The move by the Health Services Union (HSU) increases the likelihood that police will launch a criminal investigation into the union’s former boss Craig Thomson over alleged payments using credit cards to a Sydney brothel.

Thomson, who is now an government MP, has denied any wrongdoing. But if he is charged with a criminal offence and then found guilty, he would be forced to leave parliament, prompting a by-election that could bring down Julia Gillard’s government, which has a one-seat majority.

So you’re saying it’s the deference of our media to the powers-that-be (especially if they sport BQ, NDP, or Liberal affiliation) that keeps our political scene from being as amusing as that of Australia? While I don’t want us to have a maple-flavoured Fleet Street, I admit I would prefer a more independent media.